Hard-Traveling Heroes of Remnant
by SW11037
Summary: Team RWBY has many friends and acquaintances, inside and outside of Beacon Academy. One of those acquaintances was one of the most well known teams to ever graduate Beacon other than Team STRQ, but these four individuals has more secrets than they realize. Co-written with VivaL'Aquila.
1. B: Scarlet, Scattered Roses

**I don't own DC Comics or RWBY. DC Comics belongs to DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. and RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth and Monty Oum.**

* * *

"_The effort you put forth for anything transcends yourself, for there is no futility even in death." – Monty Oum_

"_No one's invincible. But that fact shouldn't be holding anyone back. We all have something to offer. We all have something to lose." – Barry Allen_

* * *

**Downtown Vale**

It was your average night in the streets of Vale, with the shattered moon shining its dim lunar light to illuminate the city skyline, while lampposts lining the sidewalks brightened the streets below.

Some citizens were going about their business, walking out of buildings, shops, or chatting amongst one another, but a certain group of individuals emerged from the alleyways, walking with an ominous air that quickly sent a clear message to the people around them: "Back off, and you won't need to go home with a hole in you."

The men were all clad in black suits and fedoras, walking with a dominant demeanour. Numbering at around twenty individuals, the gang walked with confidence down the street in full view, keeping the civilians around them a clear distance away.

Leading the group up front was a man clad in a white suit that made him stand out from his men, and in addition, he wore no red-tinted sunglasses like his henchmen, but he had orange hair combed down over the right side of his face and he was puffing a fat cigar between his molars, releasing wisps of smoke from his nostrils and lips.

With a cold, yet confident glint in his eye, the man known as notorious criminal, Roman Torchwick tapped his black and red cane on the ground and raised his hand, flexing his fingers to gesture for his men to follow his lead.

However, watching from the crowd was a pair of eyes, a pair that were firmly fixed onto the gang leader in particular. Their face was indifferent, seemingly unassuming. But the eyes flickered with a spark of intensity, crackling almost. They kept on staring at the men before promptly disappearing into the crowd.

Walking down the street, the gang came up to the sidewalk and stood in front of a small shop. The lights were still on, indicating that it was still open for business. The orange-haired criminal felt his lips curl up into a malicious smile, feeling his heart tremble, beating with excitement rushing through his very blood.

With this, the man placed a gloved hand on the door's handle and pushed, hearing the bell's chime ring throughout the store. As Roman walked in, the rest of his men followed close behind, flooding into the store behind their leader.

The old man standing behind the counter looked at his new customers with a cautious eye. He recognized Roman, and he knew he had no way to run either, as the men walked up slowly to him as he shivered in fear.

Roman looked around him. The shop's shelves were lined with all kinds of assorted items of interest. In one corner of the shop, DVDs of the latest movies were set up neatly, and in another, a series of bookshelves were arranged, with a vast array of selections on display, ranging from novels, comic books and magazines.

However, Roman paid no mind to these cheap trinkets and turned his avaricious eyes to the rest of the shop's items. A set of tubes connected to fortified tanks in the corner of the shop was set up, where Dust fuel was distributed.

Looking down under his palms, Roman grinned greedily at the wide selection of multicolored Dust crystals. Each crystal seemed to radiate with the sheer power of the planet itself, humming with an ethereal energy that seemed to resonate with Roman's own aura.

Dust ammunition was nowhere in sight, as Roman expected. After all, there was a fat chance that a tiny shop like this would sell live rounds. However, Roman brushed this off and turned his head up to glare at the frightened old man standing at the cashier.

Removing his cigar from his lips with his gloved fingers, he addressed the old man, gray smoke leaking from his breath as he spoke.

"Say, do you know just how rare it is to find a Dust shop open this late? Lucky me!"

Roman snickered darkly under his breath as a henchman raised a pistol to the cashier's face, the firearm whirring to life as it powered up. Flinching in terror, the old man raised his arms in fear, the man barely managed a stammer as he shook in his shoes.

"P-please! J-Just take my l-lien and leave!"

However, Roman put a gloved finger to his lips and shushed him calmly, pressing his smoking cigar against the old man's uniform to snuff it out, causing him to cringe in pain, smiling sinisterly as he did so. "Calm down, we aren't here for your money."

"Get to work, boys." Roman ordered his men, prompting them to spread throughout the shop with containers and cases in hand.

Some walked up to the Dust dispensers and emptied their contents into storage tubes, filling them up with the ethereal mineral.

Others took to the rest of the shop, taking any items and goods of their interest. One of the thugs slammed a case onto the counter, ordering the old cashier to fill it.

"If these cases don't have every crystal in this shop by the time we come back, we'll shoot you dead ourselves." The henchman ordered menacingly, scaring the old man into taking as much crystals from the counter and emptying his hands into the case.

One of the gangsters had an empty dust canister in his hand, about to take his load of fuel from the dispensers, when he noticed something he hadn't been expecting: a customer was in the shop with them.

The customer noticeably short, their height barely short enough so that the shelves hid them from view. Fastened to their belt was a metal device of some kind. The black skirt indicated that it was a girl, but her head and back were hidden by a scarlet cape and hood as she read a certain magazine from the bookshelves next to her.

For the moment, it seemed that the girl was too immersed in her book to realize that the shop was currently being robbed, reading without an apparent care in the world.

Growling between clenched teeth, the gangster set his canister down and drew his weapon from his belt. He held in his hands a blood-red machete, and pointed the blade's tip at the young girl.

"Hey kid! Hands in the air!" He barked threateningly at the girl, but he was met with no response, as the girl only continued to nonchalantly flip another page as if she had never even heard his voice.

Only becoming angrier, the thug stormed toward the girl. He then gripped her shoulder and violently pulled down her hood, revealing her face as a pair of doe-like silver eyes stared back at the gangster in surprise.

Upon turning her around, the thug could see the reason why she seemed so ignorant of their current situation: on her head rested a pair of red headphones, blaring loud music from the speakers. Considering the fact that he could still barely hear the music from where he stood, the gangster now understood why she would not be able to hear them.

Pointing at his ears, the girl seemed to understand what he was trying to say to her, and calmly removed her headphones, tucking them under her hood and hung them around her neck as she looked up to address the man in front of her.

"Hm? What's up?" The girl asked, obviously confused to some degree, but strangely wasn't intimidated.

"I said, get your hands in the air, kid! Now!" The thug bellowed in her face, leading her to quirk her eyebrow, as if she had been told a bad joke that she didn't understand.

"Are you… robbing me?" The girl asked, confused.

The gangster's face began to pop a vein. This little kid in front of him had a blade pointed at her puny neck, and she wasn't even flinching. What was worse, she didn't even act like she understood what the hell was going on. This kid was pushing his buttons, and he absolutely _hated_ it.

"YES!"

Upon hearing his reply, the girl's eyes blinked, then narrowed.

"Oh…"

What happen next, the gangster really didn't process much. Because a split-second after the little girl answered him, he was flying backwards into a bookshelf.

The noise soon caught the attention of all the gangsters in the store, leading Roman to turn toward the body of his henchman ever so slightly, clearly unaffected.

Glaring at the perpetrator, another gangster ran towards the girl and raised a pistol pointed between her eyes.

"Freeze!"

Not to differently from a few moments ago, the man could barely comprehend what happened shortly after, because before he knew what was happening, he was shooting backward and felt his head smash against the glass window, shattering it into millions of pieces.

Roman Torchwick noticed the commotion and groaned under his lips. Seeing the girl tackle one of his men out the window was certainly something he wasn't expecting to deal with.

Ruby Rose then got herself off of the unconscious gangster and rose to her feet, retrieving the device from her belt and activating it, causing it to unravel itself into a massive mechanical combat scythe, its size double that of her own height.

Ruby hefted her massive weapon, Crescent Rose over her shoulder, and turned to look Roman Torchwick directly in the eye with a smile. Her face then hardened into a steely glare as she planted her weapon into the ground, switching off her headphones as she did so.

Pausing awkwardly at the girl's display, Roman wasn't entirely sure how to react to the combat student in front of him, letting his cigar hand loosely from his lip for a few moments.

But after a while, the gang boss responded, turning to his henchmen.

"Okay… Guys, do your thing." Roman ordered his men, prompting them to rush out of the shop with their weapons in hand.

Keeping her eyes on the thugs running towards her, Ruby clenched her fingers tightly around the shaft of the scythe, and stood ready for battle.

Leaping into the air, the young girl swung her legs in a circle, holding onto her scythe for support. Swinging her body weight in a circle, Ruby grunted as she slammed her feet against the face of a gangster, flooring him in one hit.

Ruby could tell that these men were not on her level. Their weapons were not as powerful as Crescent Rose, and they were slow and unorganized. Even though she was just 15 years old, Ruby was confident in her own abilities, and was not to be underestimated. She had this in the bag.

Using her momentum, Ruby flung her body into the air, yanking her scythe's blade out of the ground before landing gracefully on both feet, holding her scythe behind her back with both hands.

Seconds slowed down to minutes as Ruby's ears caught the noise of two more foes approaching from behind. In the spur of the moment, Ruby reacted, raising her weapon behind her and pulling the trigger.

The bullet drove into the ground, but she wasn't keen on hitting anyone. The shot Ruby fired off kicked like a mule, jerking her body in the opposite direction. This sent Ruby into a spinning motion, smacking away one nearby enemy and giving Ruby enough thrust to jump into the air and slam the blunt end of Crescent Rose into another gangster, pounding his body into the asphalt.

Suddenly, Ruby then heard a thug cock his firearm, leading her to aim in front of her and shoot, sending her body flying backward. Using her semblance in conjunction with her gunshots, Ruby zipped left and right to dodge the hail of bullets aimed at her.

Locking on target, Ruby then fired off a shot behind her, propelling her towards the final thug in milliseconds. Sticking her leg out, Ruby managed to fling the gangster into the air with a slide, and then sunk Crescent Rose into the road, using the momentum to jerk herself into the air.

Time then slowed to a crawl as Ruby's mind worked at blitzing speed. Remaining on target, she then pulled her weapon out of the ground and swung its head into his body with enough power to send her opponent plummeting down into the road at Torchwick's feet.

"These were the best, he said. You won't find better guys than these, he said…" Roman muttered under his breath, clearly in a foul mood as he plucked his cigar from his mouth and dropped it on the unconscious thug lying at his feet.

He then turned to the little red nuisance that had effectively ruined his relatively pleasant night with a sinister smile. "Well Red, I think we can say it's been a wonderful evening, and as much as I'd love to stick around…"

As he addressed Ruby, he nonchalantly kicked aside the unconscious henchman as he stepped forward, raising his cane, pointing the end at the young girl. "...I'm afraid this… is where we part ways."

Ruby's eyes widened as soon as she noticed the crosshair sight flick up from the bottom of the cane, revealing a hollow muzzle similar to that of a rifle. She reacted instantly, barely dodging the red-hot blast the gang boss had shot out of his cane, blowing chunks of debris out of the road in a great explosion.

Landing on her feet, Ruby looked ahead with her weapon in hand, itching to bring her enemy to justice. However as the smoke cleared, she blinked to realize Torchwick had vanished, leaving her alone on the street.

"_He couldn't have gone far. Not that quickly._" Ruby thought to herself, looking left and right in search of Roman.

Sure enough, she caught sight of him, climbing up a ladder onto the rooftop of a nearby building. Narrowing her eyes as she locked on to her target, she noticed the shopkeeper next to her.

"Mind if I go after him?" She asked, to which the old man nodded meekly.

Chasing after the gangster, Ruby used her Semblance to race towards the building, then jumped with a gunshot from Crescent Rose fired beneath her, launching her upwards into the air from the recoil.

Landing on the rooftop, Ruby spotted Torchwick standing on the edge. Gritting her teeth, Ruby then moved towards him with her scythe at the ready.

"Hey, mister! Surrender now!" Ruby yelled at him.

Torchwick didn't answer, nor did he turn around to face Ruby. Snickering under his breath from her childish demeanour and annoying tenacity, he then growled.

"Persistent, aren't you…" he muttered to himself, before the loud noise of an engine tore through the air.

Raising her arms to block a massive gust of wind, Ruby saw what looked like a Bullhead rise from the alley and open its bay doors, allowing Torchwick to step aboard as the aircraft rose even higher above the ground with its new passenger.

From within the vehicle, Roman then turned around at his pursuer, grinning wickedly as he did.

"End of the line, Red!" He yelled over the engine, pulling out a red Dust crystal from his pocket, tossing it down towards Ruby, hoping to blow her to pieces.

Ruby's eyes widened as she saw the volatile mineral fly toward her, but before she could react, much less think, she felt something.

It was difficult to place this particular feeling, but something within Ruby could sense power within it. What happened next occurred in the blink of an eye, a fleeting blur of an instant.

Time slowed down by the second, and she could feel raw energy flowing around her. She opened her eyes, and saw it. Within the span of what could be described as a literal flash, she caught the sight of what looked like an arm, or at least a red blur of an arm.

What was even odder was that whatever this was, it appeared to be completely engulfed in sparks of electrical energy. Before she could process what happened, the crystal was shot backward in the direction of the Bullhead from where it was tossed, leading Roman's eyes to shoot wide open as the crystal shattered against the hull and exploded terrifically.

"H-Huh? W-w-wha-?"

Ruby saw the Bullhead's wing tear off and catch fire, before the vessel plummeted back down to the street below, leaving a battered piece of wreckage on the road.

Gasping in horror, Ruby used her Semblance to zip down the building to the sidewalk. She wanted to be a Huntress, but that didn't mean she was gonna just let people die. Not even people like Torchwick.

Running toward the site of the crash to check for survivors, Ruby turned to the side to see something that made her eyes wider than saucers. Tied up against a lamppost was none other than Roman Torchwick, his body limp and unconscious, breathing haggardly.

Ruby was oh, so confused. One minute, she was about to be blown to smithereens, and next thing she knew, her job was already done for her… somehow.

Ruby was at a loss for words, to say the least. But before she did anything else, she heard a voice call out to her.

"Hey, kid! Do you know what happened here?"

Turning around, the confused girl spotted a young man walking toward her. The man was around his late twenties; apparently he just arrived at the scene. He wore a white button-down shirt and black tie under a light lab coat, along with black pants and shoes.

His eyes were a light blue, and his short hair was a golden blonde. He was lean, but his face and figure were somewhat fit at the same time. However, what struck Ruby about his appearance most was his face.

Running down his eyes were distinctive black lines resembling tear lines running from his bottom eyelids down to his cheeks, barely reaching the ends of his lips. Ruby found this feature odd for a person like this, but given his neat and friendly demeanour, she assumed this was either a birthmark or possibly even a faunus trait.

"H-Hey kid, you alright there?"

Snapping out of her thoughts, Ruby was reduced to a stammering mess once she realized the man was a few inches in front of her now.

"AAH! S-Sorry about t-that, mister! I-I guess I was caught up in the moment… hehehe…" Ruby managed to say to the man, who only smiled and chuckled at her antics.

Patting her on the shoulder, the man looked her in the eye and spoke again. "Don't worry 'bout it! So, what're you doing in a place like this?"

Ruby's eyes then flashed open as she remembered why exactly she was here. "A-ah, that's right! See, I was back there stopping this guy from robbing a Dust… shop…"

As soon as she was about to point the man to Torchwick, she stopped as her breath hitched. Where Torchwick was previously knocked out and tied up, his body was gone, leaving only the ropes that held him, spread loose on the ground.

"Huh?! W-What? B-But he was here a second ago whe-" Her panicked stammering was then halted when she felt the man grabbed her shoulder gently.

"Calm down, kid. I'll get to the bottom of this. Trust me. Name's Barry Allen by the way." She then saw Barry pulled a small card from his coat pocket.

"I'm a detective here in VPD. Call me anytime if you seen anything suspicious or something that leads to a criminal activity."

Placing the card in her hand, Ruby looked up at the man's kind eyes and took the card, nodding with a smile.

"T-Thank you sir-"

But before she could continue any further, that familiar rush of energy returned, causing her body to tingle for only a nanosecond before disappearing completely. Looking up, she then saw that Barry was completely gone, and that she was alone in the middle of the road.

"…H-Huh? W-Wha-? But… h-he was right-…?" Ruby stammered in absolute confusion. How in the hell did that happen?! Was she going crazy or something?!

Taking a deep breath to calm herself, Ruby then looked down to her hand holding the card the man had given her.

"Bartholomew Henry Allen…" She read off the card, shifting her fingers around the card as she read it curiously.

But as she did, she yelped as she felt the familiar sting of static spark on her finger. However, she paid no mind to it, and began to walk away from the scene, rubbing her head in confusion.

"I need a nap…" Ruby whined as she walked away, completely and utterly stumped by the events that night.

* * *

**R _ _ _**

**B _ _ _**


	2. H: Trial of Will

"_Everyone is entitled to their own sorrow, for the heart has no metrics or forms of measure. And all of it… irreplaceable." – Weiss Schnee_

"_You can't foresee the consequences of your actions – But that's no excuse to do nothing." – Hal Jordan_

* * *

**The White Castle, Atlas**

_I am strong._

"Weiss?"

_I am ready._

"Weiss?"

_After all, I am a Schnee._

"Are you ready?"

Two ice-blue eyes softly opened and blinked as Weiss Schnee stood calmly before her mentor within the vast hallways of the White Castle. Two feet stood planted on the ground as her resolve was honed like steel.

Her lips released calm breaths as her palm stroked the silver hilt of Myrtenaster. She had spent years of her life building to this moment, enduring hours of grisly training and a hundred trials to break her down and build herself up stronger.

Standing before her on the opposite end of the hallway was none other than the man who had agreed to prepare her for the journey ahead, to transform her into the elegant warrior she had always wanted to be. As she took a final breath, her eyes stared ahead, locking with the gaze of Hal Jordan.

Weiss had always admired her sister, for she was everything she had aspired to be in life; a powerful and graceful knight fighting to make the world a safer place. However, her mentor and trainer all these years was something she considered to be a completely different level from Winter's own ability.

Hal was easily the most determined soldier in the Altas Military as far as Weiss was concerned, and his power was unrivaled, even compared to the General himself. She had seen firsthand what he was truly capable of, and was even more surprised to learn she was one of very few individuals to know of his Semblance's apparent power.

However, Hal was kind to her and understood her pleas like the father she never was able to have, and when he had offered to train her, she couldn't be more grateful.

However, Weiss quickly brushed these thoughts aside as she re-entered the present, to where all of her hard work was to end and be put to the test. Finally prepared to face her final trial, Weiss uttered the words as she drew her weapon.

"I'm ready."

With those words, the hallway was quiet, with only the quiet whisper of the winter breeze outside to break the silence. Moments later, Hal gave a grin as the small ring resting on his finger started to glow with a radiant emerald flash of light.

"Alright, then. Let's begin." Hal said before opening his palm as a transparent sword materialized in his hand. Weiss could see that obviously the feat was the ring's work, and that most likely meant that his Semblance was likely the cause, meaning he was expending his energy to create the blade.

The weapon itself was akin to a holographic projection made of what could only be described as solidified light taken form like a glass sculpture. The object glowed with the same energy as the ring, and Hal only smiled at Weiss with determination as he allowed a shield to form on his second arm.

Seeing this as her cue, Weiss stood ready, raising her weapon and assuming a stance. Flicking the hammer of the rapier under her thumb, Weiss heard the rattling trill of the revolving barrel spinning within the hilt as it locked onto the Dust type she wanted.

Without any further ado, Weiss made the first move as a circular glyph bearing the shape of her family's signature snowflake symbol materialized below her heels, pushing her body forwards across the floor and rocketing towards her opponent.

Moving like a silver arrow streaking across the glassy floor, Weiss's eyes never strayed from her target as she closed in by the millisecond. However, she knew better than to assume that Hal would simply stand still and wait for her to hit him.

Sure enough, a mere instant before Weiss was directly in front of him, Hal moved to the side in an attempt to dodge Weiss's charge, but Weiss was expecting this. After all, she had been training under the man for too long to underestimate him.

Without a word, Weiss immediately changed her position the second she passed him, tracing her rapier behind her and releasing the contents of the Dust cartridge in the hilt to release a trail of huge ice crystals behind her.

Hal was caught off-guard by the new move, and it impressed him. So she was learning after all. Good.

Feeling his mind fuel the ring's power, Hal felt his body leave the ground as he turned his body around and shot back in Weiss's direction, holding his light-shield in front of him to block any icicles in his way, smashing the crystals apart as he flew.

Weiss then turned her body weight around, planting a palm on the ground to halt her momentum, before reassuming her stance with Myrtenaster held parallel to the direction of her gaze against her head.

Once she saw Hal speeding towards her with his shield out, Weiss's eyes widened in surprise, but only for a smidge of an instant as her mind called out to counterattack.

Striking upwards with her rapier, Weiss allowed her Aura to flow through her arms and out through the elegant blade, forming a radiant shield of Dust to hold the soldier back as his sword smashed against the glyph with a loud clang.

"Good. Remember, always be aware of your openings." Hal instructed Weiss as he geared up for another assault, the ring's light reforming around his arm. Weiss growled under her breath and readied her sword a second time.

Hal's power ring glowed again, causing the weapon in Hal's hand to morph from a sword into that of a one-handed sub-machine gun, which he immediately pointed at Weiss and clenched the trigger, spraying hundreds of green energy bullets in her general direction.

However, Weiss was not helpless as she filled her weapon with Dust energy once again and plunged the blade's tip into the floor, raising up a wall of solid ice, stopping the bullets against its girth.

Hal scoffed at this move and pointed his ring at the structure, causing the ring to glow and whine with rising energy before a single bolt of green light shot from the ring, blowing the ice into hundreds of pieces.

However, Weiss was missing from sight, and Hal barely managed to block Weiss's sudden thrust from behind with his shield. The blade's power was significant enough to make Hal's defense flinch, and this allowed Weiss to make her move.

Thrusting her sword again, Weiss managed to strike Hal in his arm, flash-freezing his arm and encasing his ring in a block of ice. However, while Hal could easily break it off, he realized that Weiss had expected this and tried to summon a defense against his pupil's barrage.

Weiss thrust, swiped and slammed against Hal's Aura with her rapier, watching as his power began to drop. She slashed against his chest and then slid behind him to strike his back with a swift thrust as she cast a glyph underneath her feet in an attempt to charge him.

Running straight towards him, Weiss coiled her arm back for another thrust with her rapier, charging the shaft of the blade with Dust. Hal, on the other hand, smirked at her drive and prepared his next move.

Summoning an exact copy of Weiss's blade into his arm, Hal zoomed ahead in Weiss's direction with the intention of facing her head-on. Within seconds, both fighters neared the center of the hallway at top speed, culminating into a violent clash of steel on solid light as master and pupil crossed blades.

Hal looked into the Schnee heiress's eyes and saw it. He could see the blaze of her willpower flaring from the depths of her soul as she coursed the limits of her strength into her arms, while maintaining her calm and collected composure as she held his own blade back.

Smiling at his student, Hal barely noticed the glyph forming just beneath his own feet. Before he could jump out of the way, Hal felt an invisible force push him upwards into the air as Weiss prepared herself for another relentless barrage.

Weiss used a second glyph beneath her feet to push her upwards with a slice, pushing Hal's body backwards with the force, although Hal managed to block Weiss's attack with a projected shield before it could deal some notable damage.

However, Weiss was still not finished as he could see with Weiss staring back at him with those cold, yet unrelenting eyes. Holding her arm out towards him, Hal's eyes widened as he soon realized he was unable to move.

Hal felt his body halt its momentum in mere moments, held in complete stasis as familiar glyphs held his arms and legs in place. Gazing back at Weiss, he could spot a victorious smirk form on her features as she spun Myrtenaster's barrel one more time.

Hal then saw Weiss's glyphs materialize in the air, completely surrounding him from all directions. A technique he had never seen Weiss execute at this magnitude. He then saw Weiss running towards him with a glyph under her feet, rushing at him with fire in her cold eyes.

"_You're trying to box me in and hit me from all sides. Impressive._" Hal thought to himself, proud of Weiss's progress until now.

"_But…_"

Weiss's attack halted quickly once she saw Hal's body completely enveloped in emerald light before a blinding flash swept throughout the castle, blowing away Weiss's glyphs and leaving Weiss to cover her eyes to block the radiant light.

Staring upwards, Weiss's jaw nearly dropped as she saw her mentor hovering above the ground, surrounded by rocky debris encased in a green aura not unlike that of his ring. Most notably of all, Hal was now sporting a green and black skintight armored suit decorated with veins of green energy with white gloves, ending with the glowing ring surging with power on his right hand.

Upon seeing the symbol on his chest and the iconic mask he sported over his now white eyes, Weiss immediately realized who she was up against.

"Mr. Jordan… You're the Green Lantern?!" Weiss asked in bewilderment. Green Lantern was a name infamous throughout Remnant, and was synonymous with a hero of unrivaled power and might.

As he looked down at his student, Hal only smiled. "Yep. I wasn't sure if I should've told you the truth, but I figured it wouldn't be fair if I went easy on you." Hal smirked, honing energy into his power ring once again.

Hal's secret identity as the superhero known as Green Lantern was a secret unknown to all but a select few close to him, and he made it a life mission to keep prying eyes from finding out the truth.

His humble beginnings at Signal led to the creation of his ring, although it was nothing compared to the powerful weapon it had become since he had discovered that meteorite in the Atlesian wilderness.

Even as the most skilled pilot in the Air Force, Hal's ring powered purely by the strength of his will was an indispensable facet of his arsenal, which forged his vigilante identity as Green Lantern to become a symbol of hope for the people of Remnant in ways that he was never able to as a pilot.

"Just so you know, we aren't done yet." Hal reminded Weiss sternly, who only nodded in response, snapping from her shocked daze and readying her rapier once more.

"Hit me _once_, and I'll give you the win. Agreed?" Hal offered, his ring shining with power and at the ready for the second round, waiting for Weiss's response.

"Deal." Weiss coldly stated, spinning Myrtenaster's barrel as Hal summoned more constructs without restraint. Dozens of missiles materialized behind Hal, their heads all aimed at the petite heiress.

Weiss could still hardly believe what was before her eyes, as her trainer raised his ring into the air, summoning deadly rockets to blow her away. Weiss almost felt the massive gap in power between them as a tiny voice in the back of her head urged her to give up and accept defeat.

"_No._" The voice then spoke inside her mind.

"_Don't give up now._" It said.

"_You're ready. Right here, right now._"

Weiss then remembered it all. Winter and how she wanted to be just as strong and chivalrous as her. She remembered that day when she realized the lie she had been living her whole life.

She was no puppet, nor was she another pawn in her father's game. She was Weiss Schnee, and she was going to make her dream a reality, and it all started with this moment.

Hal quirked an eyebrow at the sight of Weiss's determined smile, somewhat reminding him of Ollie's when he first met him in Beacon. With that, Hal's heart swelled and his hand was held high with the ring's light flashing as bright as could be.

"Weiss, show me the strength of your willpower!"

With those words, everything cranked up to eleven as Hal wreaked hell with his Lantern ring. Weiss ran for her life, using her glyphs to boost her speed tenfold as missiles and projectiles crashed to the ground behind her.

Weiss looked up at her mentor and target, studying his stance and taking note of any possible openings she could exploit. She had made it this far, and she wasn't going to let this of all things stop her.

Hal remained in the air, glued to the same spot as he was before, relentlessly flinging light constructs in her direction with no apparent end. Weiss realized that this was his test; he would not move, but he would do everything in his power to keep her away from him.

All Weiss had to do was find an opening in his impenetrable bastion and then she would reach her grand prize. A simple task, but far from an easy one.

Taking another breath, Weiss decided to pull another card from her hand and tapped her rapier to the ground, casting two different glyphs; one in front of her to protect her body, and a second directly beneath her.

Aside from the infamous company, Weiss's glyphs were her family pride, and thus, she trained restlessly to strengthen them to their full potential, courtesy of her dear elder sister, whose skill with her ability was leagues above her own, and the best teacher she could ever ask for.

White pushed off, black held in place, she still had yet to summon, but the clocks…

Weiss's glyph underneath her feet did not take the shape of a snowflake, but rather a clock with its hands turning at a rapid speed. All of a sudden, Weiss's world slowed to a crawl as time slowed down until the missiles Hal was throwing seemed to move in slow motion. Without further ado, Weiss moved.

Hal was shocked. Weiss had never displayed such proficiency with her time dilation glyphs, and it was working with full effect. Weiss's movements were significantly faster, almost making it seem like she was teleporting from one place to the next, and Hal's aim was hardly reliable anymore.

Growling under his breath, Hal raised his arms and formed a new construction as his ring glowed with emerald energy. A second later, a massive minigun was held firmly in both hands, and with a powerful roar, Hal clenched the trigger and aimed.

Weiss saw the bullets coming, but they moved at the same pace as a snowflake drifting in the wind. Calm and focused, yet slow and serene in its movements. Weiss could tell that Hal was aiming for her, and yet she could somehow outrun his perception under the effects of her glyph.

Seizing her chance as she moved in closer, Weiss waved her rapier in front of her, summoning yet another set of glyphs and watched as they slowly appeared to secure Hal in the air.

Hal's arms felt chained once more, and he could do little as Weiss readied another glyph beneath her feet, shooting herself up in the air with a graceful flip.

Gazing upwards at his student, Hal knew how this was going to end a few seconds later. Weiss gazed down at him with those icy blue eyes, but they were neither cold, nor empty. They harboured sorrow, but at the same time, an unfathomable pride and drive burned within. Hal knew at that moment that she was ready at last.

Hal readied his ring for a last stand, summoning the last thing he could think of as Weiss's sword now glowed a pure and angelic white, fully charged with Dust. Humming with power, Myrtenaster's blade was aimed at his chest, and Weiss burst down towards her mentor for the final blow.

Hal's construction was finally complete, taking the form of a final missile, aimed in the path of the heiress, but she paid no mind as the rocket shot towards her, and merely narrowed her cold and calculated gaze as she sped up.

The blade sliced directly through the missile, the tip piercing the head and setting it ablaze, but it did not fail to stop her onslaught, and she paid no mind to the burning sensation that smothered her face.

There was a bright flash of light, one that could be compared to the luminescence of heaven itself, and as the smoke cleared, the battle was set and done. Two figures were on the floor, one lying on the ground in defeat, and the second breathing haggardly with her blade tapped against her opponent's emblem decorating his chest armor.

Weiss could feel blood trickling down her eye, but she wasn't hurt and paid no thought to the pain. She had succeeded at last, and she had reached the end of the road. Hal Jordan lay beneath her, allowing his armor to fade away, eyes returning to normal dark brown ones as the ring's light began to dim.

"(gasp) I… (gasp) …did it…." Weiss panted, barely able to speak through her exhausted breaths, barely taking notice of the wet trickle down her cheeks. Whether they were from her eyes or her newfound scar, she did not care.

Weiss had finally passed her tedious trials, and now she was free to leave her accursed prison and apply to Beacon, like Hal had.

Ever since he had told her of the school where he had graduated from, the place where he made friends and learned to be a true huntsman for the people of Remnant, she knew at that moment that she wanted the same.

To be free, to live for herself and her own dreams, to be the hero for Remnant that her father never was.

Weiss was smiling now, breathing heavily at the same time, finally revelling in her hard-earned victory as she sheathed Myrtenaster to her side, dropping to her knees on the ground, feeling the exhaustion of overusing her time dilation for too long, draining at her Aura and setting every fiber of her body on fire as she rested.

In front of her, she could see Hal standing up before her and walking up to her, and she was unsure of what he was going to do. Congratulate her, perhaps? Say that he was proud of her? She didn't know what to expect, but she would take it gladly.

Hal looked down at the girl he called his student. He remembered the small girl who had it all coming to him and asking for his tutelage. He remembered the emptiness that would fill her eyes at times, like those of a lifeless puppet.

Then as months passed them by, he caught glimpse of the fire in her eyes, the emerald shine of the same willpower that empowered the ring in his hand. He had seen this surging energy before, in both former comrades and himself whenever he would summon the ring's light.

It was at the moment he first saw that fire, that he realized why Winter was so insistent with him. Weiss's potential would be unveiled and he would pave the way for her to realize her vision, like he had so many years ago.

Standing before her now, he could barely imagine how far the little girl had gone, and he could not find the words to express the sheer magnitude of his pride for her.

And thus, Hal said nothing, and instead wrapped his arms around the tired girl, holding her close in a tight hug.

Weiss was taken aback by the sudden embrace, but this move triggered something within her. Her heart felt as if it had a hole punched through it, and now it was suddenly being filled once again. She could feel the warmth of his body as he held her close with the care and affection she had never felt before, and she could never ask for anything more precious than this.

"You did it, kiddo. You're a huntress now." He whispered, barely managing to allow Weiss's overjoyed sobs reach his ears as her tears soaked into his coat.

His little snowflake was finally ready to take flight.

* * *

**R W _ _**

**B H _ _**


	3. O: Call of the Hunt

"_Your hopes have become my burden. I will find my own liberation…" – Blake Belladonna_

"_You think justice is something that can be bought, blackmailed, killed. You're wrong. Justice is an arrow. And I've made one just for you." – Oliver Queen_

* * *

**Industrial District, Vale**

The bustling city of Vale was what one would often describe as a bright and sunny place. The warm and inviting atmosphere of the streets would attract the smiles of the populace, and the sun always shined radiantly over the canvas blue sky, promising a new day full of new opportunities.

The people on the other hand, were just as lively for the most part, living peaceful lives with friends and family as life carried on. Each of them played their part and lent their hands to better the world around them, some working through the night in shops, office buidings, or the massive factories towering above the industrial district.

As darkness fell over the city, different kinds of people roamed the streets, those who hid from the light and worked in the shadows for reasons concerning none other than their own personal interests, noble or not.

Around these seedier parts of the town untouched by prying eyes, a hidden phantom strafed the rooftops, prowling his territory like a hunter tracking down his prey. His eyes scanned the streets as his feet sped across the buildings, searching and scouring the shadows for those stirring up trouble.

The prowler of the night came to a stop over a warehouse, standing up to gaze over the light-decorated city in the distance, smiling as he watched the lights of the houses shining brightly like fireflies in a field. However, he quickly reminded himself not to be too distracted as he reached behind his back to grasp the shaft of an arrow from his quiver.

Directing his attention to commotion beneath him, he could make out frightened cries of what he could only assume to be innocent civilians unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Down below in an alleyway behind the warehouse, two figures panted exhaustedly as they cried out desperately for help. Both of them were women, one of them with canine ears growing out of her head and the other a faunus like the former, but with a goat's horns. Following closely behind them and gaining quickly were a group of shady-looking men, each of them dressed in a matching uniform of black suits, fedoras, and red-tinted sunglasses.

The women were unable to outrun their pursuers, resulting in one of the men to restrain one faunus by hooking his arms under her shoulders and holding her against his chest, causing her to scream in panic. The second woman turned back immediately, and in that moment, was grabbed with violent force and slammed against the nearby wall, causing her to cry out in pain.

"Alright, doggy. Time to talk." One of the men growled as he clenched his hands tighter around the woman's shoulders, causing her to whimper in fear and pain as she squirmed against the brick wall.

"W-what do you w-want?! J-just leave us alone!" The woman pleaded fearfully, terrified for her life as she stared back at her friend being restrained by another thug.

"The boss told us that you guys have… connections with the White Fang." The man continued threateningly, causing the woman's eyes to widen and her breaths to shorten.

"W-W-What?! B-but w-we don't-" The woman stammered in fear, only becoming more terrified as the man's face grew angrier and clenched a hand around her neck.

"Quit lying! I oughta strap a muzzle on you if you keep stammering like that, you stupid bitch!" The man yelled, quickly causing the woman to fall dead silent as her body shivered in terror.

"Put a collar on the dog! Maybe then she'd start heeling for you!" One of the thugs called out, causing the others to laugh loudly.

The man then groaned in frustration and released his hand to pull out his scroll. Holding the device up to the woman's face, he pointed at the images. "You know these guys? I'd appreciate it if you'd point us in the right direction, for the sake of your friend there."

The woman turned to her friend, watching as she shook in fear in the man's grasp. Close by, another thug had his pistol pressed against her skull, his finger eagerly tickling against the trigger.

"I heard goats have thick skulls! If you don't tell us what we want to know, we'll put that to the test on your friend here!" The man growled, tapping the gun's barrel threateningly against her horns, causing her to whimper in horror.

"Sorry, but I don't think kids like you should be out this late!"

Before any of the thugs could process the intervention of a foreign voice, a faint whistling noise sliced through the air and was followed by the blunt noise of metal piercing metal. The thug threatening the goat-horned woman suddenly felt his arm jerk back with powerful force, causing his pistol to clatter unceremoniously on the ground with a green arrow piercing its barrel.

"Who's there?!" One of the thugs yelled out, pulling out a glowing red machete to defend himself as the other thugs armed themselves, dropping both of their captives to the ground.

On cue, a single figure dropped to the ground from the rooftops, landing gracefully on both feet and standing before the three men, his appearance illuminated by the lone lamppost on the side of the path.

The man was dressed in a hooded green vest with matching boots and padding on his forearms and knees, akin to the appearance of a Huntsman. In his hand, he grasped a modified longbow, but judging from its appearance alone, it was clearly no ordinary bow. The limbs appeared to be lined with a sharp edge like a blade's and was decorated by a curved dagger attached.

His face was still visible under his hood, but his eyes were covered by a black mask. His hair was a golden blonde, ending with a Van Dyke beard lining his chin. The newcomer approached the thugs, causing them to tense up and grip their weapons tighter.

"Hey, buddy. I don't know who the hell you are, but you'd better get lost if you know what's good for you!" One of the thugs snarled angrily, but the man was unaffected and grinned in response.

"For your information, pal, you're talking to Green Arrow, and I'm afraid I can't do that." The newly identified Green Arrow hummed with a jovial tone, further frustrating the thugs, causing one of them to reach for his pistol.

"If you won't mind your own business, then I guess we'll just have to- GAH!"

The thug never finished his sentence as an arrow struck him in the abdomen, sending sparks throughout his body and knocking him down as his body convulsed from the electrical shock. The other two thugs glared at Arrow, who didn't lower his bow and continued to reach for his arrows.

"It might come as a _shock_ to you guys, but I used to be a thug just like you! At least until I took an arrow… and pointed it at people like you." Ollie grinned excitedly as he raised his bow to take another shot.

With that, the thugs readied themselves to attack their opponent, when all of a sudden, one of the thugs was knocked aside by a black blur and slammed against the wall. Raising an eyebrow with a blink, Ollie saw someone else attacking the thugs rise to their feet, revealing themselves to be a teenage girl.

The young woman had long, black hair that seemed to flow in the breeze and was dressed in what one could only describe as a cross between that of a butler's uniform and a ninja's garb. Her skin was pearl white and her eyes were a shining color of amber. To top it off, she wore a large black hair bow atop her head. Grasped in her hand was a black rectangular-shaped sword with what appeared to be a pistol's barrel and trigger affixed to the hilt.

Blake's sudden appearance had startled the thugs, and the two faunus civilians quickly took this opportunity to escape, silently thanking their saviors.

After leaving Forever Fall, Blake had been wandering Vale in hopes of finding someplace to settle down before she applied to Beacon, and in the meantime, spent her nights venturing around the city and halting assaults and acts of violence against faunus. Coincidentally, she happened upon this group of thugs and curiously enough, a huntsman who was already on the scene, not something normal huntsmen would go out of their way to do.

Faunus were often overlooked, and as such, many huntsmen wrote these crimes as everyday offences, leaving these matters to the police who barely cared as much, some even being guilty of these assaults.

That being said, it was… rather refreshing to see someone doing his job where it mattered most.

"I had that, kiddo." Ollie called out, unofficially greeting the newcomer.

Turning her head towards the emerald archer, Blake opened her mouth to reply, only to be interrupted as her senses warned her of approaching danger. Immediately whipping her head around, she barely had time to detect the large group of thugs directly behind her, much less the weapons swung in her direction.

All of a sudden, another arrow flew through the air and hit the closest thug to Blake in the face, causing the projectile to explode like a grenade, throwing the group back. Blake turned to the archer, whose hands were coated in a bright aura before returning to normal as he lowered his bow slightly.

"Thanks." Blake muttered softly, but just loudly enough for him to hear.

"Thank me later, kid. But for now, how about we team up?" Ollie replied as he saw the thugs rise to their feet and point their weapons threateningly towards the pair. This was going to be one hell of a fight and as much as he'd rather handle this on his own and with this girl out of harm's (and his bow's) way, he wasn't going to let his damn pride get in the way this time.

"_Good grief, kid. Only Dinah makes me think this way with girls._" Ollie laughed mentally, before grasping his bow in his hand with his stance low to the ground, unclasping the dagger from the weapon and grasping it in his hand close to his chest.

Blake observed the situation and sighed as she reloaded her weapon's magazine, loading it with Dust ammunition and drawing her weapon into two blades, dual wielding the inner katana blade with the sharpened sheath.

"Sure thing. Just try not to hit me." Blake jested as both of them stepped forward to engage.

The two of them split off to fight off the thugs, with Ollie beginning by drawing a set of arrows and firing them off, nailing three arrows on one thug's head, knocking him out rather quickly. Using his body as a springboard, Ollie then leapt into the air and drew a second arrow. Using his Semblance, he flared up his bow with a unique energy that siphoned into his arrow as he let it loose, causing it to explode terrifically on the ground, sending the crowd in disarray.

Landing on his feet, he then raised his bow, flinching from the sudden impact of a thug slamming his machete down aiming for his head. Ollie struggled under the thug's strength, but quickly turned the tables as he swung his bow to the side, redirecting the thug's strike and using his momentum to direct a powerful kick against his torso, sending the thug sprawling across the ground.

On the other hand, Blake was faring just as well, using her blades to keep her opponents at bay and strike them down in the blink of an eye. As two thugs tried to slice down on her with their weapons, Blake used her sheath to deflect both attacks, using their occupied state to floor the two of them with well-aimed shots to the head with her pistol.

As three more thugs approached her, Blake flipped several meters back, causing the form of her body to split in two, blur and dissipate, leaving Blake far ahead of them. Using the distance to her advantage, Blake then threw her pistol end, which ended in the folded katana blade at the criminals.

Yanking the ribbon with a violent tug, the pistol end jerked backwards and swept two thugs off of their feet, and as the remaining thug neared Blake, she leapt up and dug a heel into his face, soaring into the air and pulling up the firearm with her. Yelling out a battle cry, Blake then spun the weapon in all directions, creating a whirlwind with her weapon slicing in a sphere around her.

The girl's attack sent all within its range to the ground, and as Blake landed, she flung the pistol forward, catching a thug on the head and nailing the blade on his aura, before pulling on the ribbon, reeling him in and allowing Ollie to slide under him and fire several arrows upwards, knocking him out as he crashed across the floor.

Ollie reached into his quiver with a seamless movement of his arm, not hindering his charge in the slightest as he strung up another arrow and fired, striking one thug in the chest, encasing him in a block of solid ice as the arrow exploded.

Using the opening, Ollie fired a second arrow as more thugs rushed past their incapacitated teammate in an attempt to attack him. The arrow struck the ice and ignited with a powerful blast, sending shards of ice flying in all directions, knocking out a couple of thugs who were unfortunately close by.

Swinging his bow sideways like a baseball bat, Ollie slammed the weapon into one thug's stomach and then delivered a kick to his torso, sending him flying towards the wall. Raising his weapon, Ollie then parried a swing from a second thug, before swiping his bow to the side, throwing the gangster off balance and then knocking him out with a bludgeoning blow to the skull.

As a third thug approached, Ollie only smirked in anticipation as he steadied his bow and aimed a new arrow. Letting it loose, the arrow's head collapsed and opened, releasing a large net that enveloped and entangled the thug, stopping him in his tracks as he struggled to free himself to no avail.

Hearing footsteps behind him, Ollie then turned around with his bow, slamming into another thug's jaw and jerking his head sideways. A split-second later, Ollie barely had time to think as another thug pulled the trigger on his pistol, causing the bullet to lightly graze the skin of his forearm.

Despite the pain, Ollie thought quickly as his body staggered to the ground, threatening to collapse. Redirecting his legs, Ollie swung a heel at the thug's feet, sweeping him off the floor and immediately shot an arrow at the ground beneath him.

The arrow ignited with a brilliant explosion, knocking the thug out and sending Ollie backwards with the force of the blast. Getting up on his feet, he then noticed two more thugs attempting to swing at him from the front.

Swallowing his pain, Ollie held out his bow and spun it in front of him, stunning the two thugs as their blades deflected off of the bladed weapon. Ollie then grasped one end of his bow's arm, swinging it with all his might in front of him, throwing the attackers back.

As he prepared a final arrow to finish them off, Ollie narrowed his gaze and aimed.

"Look out!"

Ollie barely turned around in time to intercept the warning, finding him face-to-face with a final thug, significantly more muscular in frame than the others as he towered above the archer.

Leaping to the side in the nick of time, Ollie barely dodged the thug as he slammed both fists on the ground, leaving shallow craters in the ground.

Ollie was shocked at the sheer amount of strength this thug was displaying, and just after one look, he could tell that this strength was anything but normal. The thug was breathing hoarsely, and Ollie could even compare it to the snarling of an angry Ursa.

Spotting the veins pulsing from a point in the neck, Ollie cursed under his breath when he thought of these thugs taking Venom of all things. If _he_ was back and backing up these men, he would be in deeper trouble than he thought.

Ollie swerved to the side, dodging the maddened brute's swing of an arm, before firing an arrow into his bicep, stunning him. However, the large man was unbothered as he swatted the projectile off of his arm and lunged for the archer.

"Dammit! Fast, aren't ya?"

Cursing under his breath, Ollie kicked a foot into his face and pushed himself backwards to gain distance. The thug reeled back from the blow, but recovered easily and was charging the vigilante in an instant, huffing under his growls like a wild beast.

Ollie readied another arrow, but was quick to realize that he was too slow. Within the span of a second, the thug was going to be directly in front of him, and he wasn't going to have enough time to charge up another blast big enough to buy him enough time.

However, these thoughts quickly retreated as a cord wrapped itself around the thug's neck, causing him to choke and tug at the binding, struggling against Blake on his back pulling tighter on Gambol Shroud to restrain him.

Straining her arms to pull tighter, Blake could feel the thug's strength tugging at her weapon's ribbon, threatening to rip her arms off at the socket. Not paying mind to the pain, Blake continued to fight.

She could not fall here, nor could she allow someone else to die on her watch. This time, she was going to save lives _her _way.

"Now! Take the shot!"

Stunned by the girl's bravery, Ollie flashed another smirk as he reached for another arrow in his quiver, a favorite arrow that replaced the traditional sharp arrowhead with a boxing glove. Drawing the thin shaft against the string of his bow, pulling it back and lining up his sights.

Steadily aligning his weapon with the thug's chest, Ollie breathed slowly as a familiar surge of power traveled from his aura. The spark of his Semblance appeared to boil from his soul, then spilling outwards and rerouting into his arms.

The last of the energy then flowed seamlessly into his arrow, filling it with raw power and boosting its limits. Once he felt that it could endure no more, Ollie glared into his enemy's eyes and smiled.

Releasing his hold, Ollie watched as the arrow soared through the air with the force of a fighter jet breaking the sound barrier. The projectile left a trail of light green from Ollie's aura, before slamming into the thug's chest.

The arrow then exploded terrifically, releasing the large surge of energy all at once as the force of the blast sent the thug flying backwards and smashing into the brick wall, knocking him unconscious as his body reverted back to normal, the effects of the Venom injection finally wearing off.

Breathing heavily from the battle, Ollie let out a sigh of relief as he slung his bow back over his shoulder, dusting off his suit and readjusting his mask on his face.

Beside him, Blake was doing the same, before directing her attention to the green-clad bowman.

"That was kinda overkill if you ask me." She remarked, nodding towards the brute's unconscious body lying in stasis.

At this, Ollie let out a snarky chuckle as he shrugged unapologetically. "He'll be fine! Nice to let out my Semblance every once and a while, am I right? Plus, the dosage I give my arrows usually aren't enough to leave serious damage."

"Usually?"

"Sorry, not sorry. Heh!" Ollie replied, letting out a chuckle as he turned to take his leave, his arms laidback and cradling his head from behind.

However, there was one thought that lingered in Ollie's mind that he just couldn't shrug off as he usually did. This girl and her actions were a pleasant kind of surprise, but a shock nonetheless.

"By the way…" Ollie breathed out, catching Blake's attention.

"Hm? What is it?" The girl asked in confusion at his sudden inquiry.

Collecting his thoughts, Ollie spoke. "Why go through the trouble? Faunus assault usually doesn't attract attention like this. Why'd you fight so hard to protect these faunus?"

Despite his lighthearted demeanor, Ollie knew one thing or another about the dark places around Remnant. While crime and villains were already a big problem, faunus discrimination was definitely a severe issue purely due to how overlooked it was.

It was rare to find people like himself fighting for them, much less someone who would go out at night looking for faunus to save from muggings. Humans were oppressors, and to help the oppressed while being such was confusing to him.

Blake's expression remained still, as she responded with a solemn voice. "Well, I could ask you the same thing."

With that, Blake dashed off, using her weapon to hoist herself up to the rooftops before leaping off into the darkness, disappearing into the midnight.

Ollie didn't move and only watched as Blake vanished from his sight. Collecting his thoughts, Ollie dryly chuckled to himself as he walked towards the brute's body.

"Smart kid. Wonder what her deal was, though." Ollie muttered to himself as he searched the thug's pockets, running his hands into his dusty coat, pulling out a small vial half-filled with green liquid.

The vial was attached to a thin needle and pump, apparently to administer the steroid-like drug directly. Ollie stared at the bubbling solution of Venom within the vial, before smirking to himself and walking away, taking out an arrow and a pen while he did so.

"Venom, huh? Well, big guy, hope you're ready for another ass-kicking." Ollie sneered to himself as he tossed the vial over his head and promptly shot an arrow in the same direction.

Once the police arrived at the scene, they would find only the bodies of the thugs tied up together against the alley wall, as well as a message marked with a signature arrow.

Pinned against a lamppost by a bright green arrow was a piece of paper tied to a small syringe, with the paper reading this:

**Watch your butts. Venom's on the streets. **

**PS: You're welcome! ;)**

– **Love, Your Friendly Neighbourhood Green Arrow!**

* * *

**R W B _**

**B** **H** **O _**


	4. D: Girl on Fire

"_Scathing eyes ask that we be symmetrical, one sided and easily processed. Yet every misshapen spark's unseen beauty is greater than its would be judgement." – Yang Xiao Long_

"_Scars. You'd have to go under the knife to remove those. But the psychological disfigurement – no blade for that. Except the cutting edge of life itself. Otherwise, you remain a cheerless bird in a glided cage." – Dinah Lance_

* * *

**Junior's Bar, Downtown Vale**

The city of Vale was a jewel in the crown of the cities of Remnant, shining brightly from the brightness of day to the mystery of the night.

The city was no more mystifying than the mountain towns of Mistral, nor were they more riveting than the desert Kingdom of Vacuo, or as sophisticated as the floating metropolis of Atlas, but Vale was a place where one could settle down and relax, taking in the calm humility of the city in all its splendor.

The city was vast in size, and there was a place where anybody could feel welcome. Vale was a peaceful place as the sun shined over the bustling city, gazing down on the citizens going about their daily business without a worry in the world. However, where the light burned, there must be shadows to counter it.

When the sun set and the darkness of night enveloped the city, the shadier residents clinging to the shadows emerged to conduct their business, and the seedier parts of Vale began to rear their faces bare. It was during this time that the wilder and more adventurous folk began to rise in search of excitement.

The city's nightlife never failed to deliver, either.

The city's roads were lined with endless lines of cars and vehicles, likely aiming to get home from a long day of work. However, the streets were fast, and streaks of white and red sped down the highways, with residents aiming to make the most of the night while they could.

Among these, a flash of golden yellow streaked down the highway, speeding through vehicles with the rumbling hum of its engine. The driver straddled low across the seat, her shorts allowing her generously exposed thighs to catch the breeze as they hugged the bike and its warm metal flanks, her gloved hands gripping the handles and directing the bike with keen expertise. Beneath her yellow helmet, her eyes flashed with a flaming adrenaline and excitement as she revved the engine and accelerated.

Beneath her helmet, wild and golden streaks of hair waved like banners in the breeze as she swerved and steered down the highway, causing her heart to beat faster and her smile to widen.

Turning a corner, the driver jerked weight of the bike to the side as she skidded to a stop, driving the rubber of her tires against the smooth asphalt. The driver sighed with a relieved breath, before placing both hands on either side of her head, grasping her helmet and pulling it off her head.

Pulling the headgear and her goggles off, the driver shook her head from side-to-side, allowing her long, flowing hair to straighten out and loosen, extending down to the height of her shorts, barely able to touch her bare thighs, dancing as she stepped down the street like a burning flame.

Strutting down the street, her bright lilac eyes shifted to the modestly-sized door down the street, decorated with a fancy and high-end style, but reeked of a raunchy and shady atmosphere, leading Yang to take a deep breath before flashing a confident smirk, striding in as the doors opened before her.

Entering the club, Yang took it all in.

Music was booming off of the club's walls, lights flashed and flared over the dance floor, and patrons were enjoying the night of their lives. Yang strutted down the steps from the entrance, passing the lively scape of the dance floor, covered completely by energetic partygoers making the most of the young night.

Yang carried a confident air with her as she walked, and she could tell that she was drawing in attention. Smiling, she revelled in it, soaking in the eyes of the club's patrons on her curvy body and her daring attire, her ample proportions accentuated by her tight jacket hugging her waist and unbuttoned over her cleavage.

However, Yang had no time to play games. She noticed other gazes on her, more suspicious and wary of her presence, courtesy of the darkly-dressed bouncers with red sunglasses, eyeing her with dangerous caution, ready to leap at her the moment she gave them the chance.

As if she would let them.

Casually striding further down along the bar, she passed partygoers laughing and sharing camaraderie over pints of alcohol, occasionally passing a bouncer who would glare her way with cold animosity.

Laughing this off to herself, Yang strutted her way to a seat on the far end of the bar, where a certain man was seated. The man possessed a large and stocky build and was considerably taller than Yang was. He wore a similar uniform to the bodyguards, dressed in a clean white shirt covered by a sleeveless black vest and decorated with a red tie.

Seated beside him were twin girls around her age dressed rather excessively in similarly designed strapless dresses and thigh-high boots in shades of red and white, respectively. However, their makeup-accented eyes emitted a similar air to the bouncers around the bar, if not sharper.

Once the larger man laid his eyes upon the newcomer, he huffed out a quiet sigh as he waved a gloved arm, signalling the girls to get off their seats and take their leave together, allowing Yang to claim the seat beside him.

Propping both her arms atop the counter, the bartender took notice of the blonde girl and turned his attention to her.

"Strawberry Sunrise. No ice. Oh, and one of those little umbrellas!"

The bartender nodded and got to work, and Yang then turned to the large man seated beside her, who turned to face her likewise.

"Aren't you a little young to be in this club, Blondie?" The large man asked the blonde-haired girl with narrowed eyes, not unlike the other men surrounding him.

However, Yang was unintimidated by his stance and casually retorted with a giggle, "Aren't you a little old to have a name like 'Junior'?"

"He does have a point, you know."

A new voice could be heard by both Yang and Junior, and caused them both to turn around to face the newcomer. Once they laid eyes on her, Yang was smiling as greatly as Junior was paling.

"Hey, firecracker. Long time no see."

A gorgeous woman waltzed into the bar and stood beside Yang. She had long, wavy blonde hair like Yang only shorter and paler that reached down her back and shining blue eyes. She wore a black leather jacket that stopped at her midriff and a sleeveless blue crop top. The crop top had thin diamond and rectangular shaped cutouts around the neckline. She also had black short shorts fastened by a white belt, showing off her legs that were covered by fishnets and feet in black combat boots. Her look was completed with black and gold bracelets and anklets on her arms and legs. Overall, she looked like an older version of Yang.

"Teach? What are you doing here?" Yang exclaimed in surprise as her former mentor smiled at her. Aside from their physical resemblances, Yang looked up to Dinah "Black Canary" Lance even to this day since her days in Signal Academy, so much so that even their choice of weaponry and combat styles were near perfect mirrors of each other.

"I was about to ask you the same thing. You're still under aged. You're not supposed to be here. Not yet, at least." Dinah half-said half-scolded her former student.

Yang just shrugged in response before whispering to her, "You know why I'm here, Teach. I'm looking for answers to find you-know-who. Maybe Junior here knows something."

Dinah widened her eyes for a second before nodding slowly; understanding about whom Yang was referring to.

"Ah, I see."

Meanwhile, Junior stepped back a little as Dinah slammed an elbow down on the counter a little too hard, her chest pushed up and her face bearing a dangerously sweet smile that sent a chill up the larger man's spine. "So, Junior! How are we going to do this tonight? Mind kindly sharing some of that info to Yang here? You know the goings on around Vale, so be a dear and help a girl out, would you?"

"H-hey, sweethearts… I got rights! Why should I tell you anything? I don't even know what you want!" Junior growled with a sweat rolling down his brow, trying to diffuse the situation as best he could and hopefully leave without having any bones broken.

Perked up by his irritated tone of words and new nickname, Dinah decided to answer. "Oh? The hard way? Fine, then. Show him technique number 14."

Yang grinned widely, walked closer to Junior and said, "On it. For starters, instead of calling us 'sweethearts', you can just call us SIRS." And so, she did technique number 14, of which only those two knew the details.

Yang grabbed the man's groin and squeezed it HARD. Junior widened his eyes in pain and shock, while the two blondes had two matching smirks on their faces.

Junior opened his mouth to scream in pain, but the air was already gone from his lungs as he could only whimper in agony. Dinah, on the other hand huffed with a smug grin, inwardly proud of her favorite student. She had grown so much since she last saw her!

"My, my! You didn't scream as loudly as the last few times! I must say, you've grown quite a set of balls, Junior~!" Dinah taunted him as he could only stare back with twitching eyes.

"Alright, firecracker. Show him." Dinah then said to Yang, who nodded back with a smile.

She brought and showed him two photos on a scroll. One was a dark-haired woman with black and red armor holding a long, red sword. And two was the orange-haired man who left the club just a moment ago.

"I-I've never seen the woman! Just the man! He left just before you got here!" Junior tried to answer in pain.

The older blonde wasn't buying it. "What? 14.5."

Yang obliged by squeezing HARDER and Dinah slowly and painfully grasping his left shoulder.

"I SWEAR I'M TELLING THE TRUTH, SIR!"

This spawned a commotion, as thugs inside the club started to surround the three, holding fire axes threateningly at two of them.

"Hmm, looks like we have an audience. This must be kind of embarrassing for you, huh?" Yang smiled while her teacher rolled her eyes at the attitude.

"Listen… blondies… Sirs, if you want to make it out of this club alive, I suggest you two let me go. Now!" Junior tried to make a threat, but it didn't sound so menacing since he was still in pain. Nonetheless, the crowd of bouncers surrounding the three of them were a problem, and they appeared reach to strike any minute.

And so they did, with Junior sighed in relief, gasping for air as Dinah heartily smacked him on the back.

"Breathe, Junior. Not bad for the fourth time."

Junior then put on his sunglasses and said in an annoyed tone, "You'll pay for that. Both of you."

Dinah waved her hand dismissively as she wore that venomous smile once again, strutting up ahead of the taller man. "Relax, big guy! We're just teasing you. Don't feel bad. How about this? Let's kiss and make up as well as pretend all of this never happened, okay~?"

Yang gripped both of her hands on the bar table with hidden excitement. "Ooh boy, here we go. Teach's technique number 20."

"Huh? Oh, o-okay…"

Dinah leaned forward with her lips puckered up, and Junior did the same. When the two were an inch distance of each other, she simply punched him in the face, sending him flying across the room and into one of the pillars on the dance floor. Yang reacted by having the hugest grin she could ever muster; she even let out a small squeak in awe.

The guests of the party ran away to the door with panicked screams, and they should have, because another party was about to go down.

The rest of the bouncers around the nightclub took notice of this, and all moved towards the blonde pair with their weapons out, ready to shed blood. Noticing this, Dinah only grinned widely as she turned towards Yang, who mirrored her excited face.

"This is where the fun begins. You ready, kid?"

Smiling happily, Yang slammed her fists together in response as her bracelets transformed and unfolded to transform into arm-length gauntlets with shotgun shells lining their undersides. "You bet I am!"

In response, Dinah activated her own weapons. Dinah's bracelets and anklets expanded into gauntlets and leg guards, with chambers that holstered magazines consisting of Dust bullet rounds in various colors. In addition, an assault rifle-like barrel was installed in front of the gauntlets.

The two stood back-to-back in boxing stances, facing the crowd of thugs approaching them from all sides with nothing but gleeful anticipation written all over their faces. Fire burning in their eyes, the pair nodded to each other and leapt into the air, their fists glowing with golden light.

Slamming down on the floor, the combined force of their punches sent a shockwave that blew away all the bouncers that surrounded them, causing them to tumble backwards. However, they managed to get back on their feet rather quickly, baring their teeth as they charged once more at the two women.

Smirking, Dinah spun her arm, rubbing her shoulder to straighten up. "You take the ones on the right, I got the ones on the left."

Smiling eagerly, Yang chose her targets. "Roger."

Sprinting up to the group of bouncers heading for her, Yang flipped up into the air again with her boot raised, before dropkicking one of the thugs, knocking him out instantly with a swift blow against the head. Not wasting any time, Yang moved to deal with the rest of them.

Her fist rose into the chin of one thug, knocking him unconscious with a fiery uppercut, and then she moved on to sweep the thugs behind her with a kick, smacking them aside.

More bouncers turned their attention to her, leading her to grin with excitement. Thrusting an arm in front of her, her gauntlets blasted out a volley of shotgun shells, throwing a bouncer down on his back. Kicking behind her, she nailed a bouncer in the gut, before ducking with a spin, allowing the hatchet swing to fly over her head as she rose with a flaming punch to the chest, sending the thug into the air before slamming him down onto the floor.

Dinah, on the other hand was holding her own just as well. Two thugs approached her and one swung down with his hatchet, only for Dinah to sidestep the attack before sweeping his feet with a low kick and punching him in the face, smashing him down onto the floor.

Dinah then turned her attention to the thug behind her, spinning around with an arm outstretched, firing off a volley of Dust bullets, stunning him. She then nailed him in the chin with an uppercut and jabbed at his face again, finishing him off by grabbing ahold of his arm and flipping him over her shoulder, throwing his body into another group of thugs.

Using this as a distraction, Dinah rose into the air and wrapped her legs around the neck of one thug, twisting her body weight to bash the thug's face against the ground, before flipping back up on her feet, digging her boots into another thug behind her, then peppering the bouncer in front of her with a mixture of bullets and punches, sending him off with a punch to the chest.

As she moved on to the next enemy, she noticed Yang's situation as she used her gauntlets to propel herself to and fro amongst the crowd, moving from one thug to the next, moving like a passionate dancer with the subtlety of a rampaging elephant.

"Hey, Yang! Remember what I told you about wasting ammo! You'll end up running out mid-battle again!" Dinah called out to her former student as she snapped a thug's arm the wrong way, causing him to scream in pain.

"I'll be fine, Teach! Don't worry about me! Just worry about yourself!" Yang replied loudly as she smashed her fist into a thug's face, breaking his glasses and sending him flying into another bouncer behind him.

"Like mother, like daughter, huh? Well, isn't that a shocker?" Dinah sighed to herself with a chuckle as she flipped another thug over her shoulder, smashing him against one of his fellow thugs.

However, the pair of them were interrupted by the sudden noise of gunfire, leaping to dodge the stream of bullets directed at the two of them. Dinah then looked up to the DJ's podium, where said DJ in a bear mask had pulled out a machine gun and started opening fire down onto the dance floor.

Dinah turned to her student, who looked to her in return, hoping to hear a plan from her. Devising a strategy, Dinah looked around, and noticed the thug's erratic firing, spraying bullets in every direction conceivable.

"He can't hit both of us. Serpentine." Dinah instructed Yang, who nodded in agreement, cueing the pair to leap back onto the dance floor.

Dinah and Yang zig-zagged across the floor, moving left and right in an attempt to throw off the gunner's aim. The DJ fired down at them, but failed to hit either blonde as both of them used their respective weapons to leap onto the podium right beside him.

Yang opened up by vaulting over the counter and kicking the thug across the chest, allowing Dinah to deliver a recoil-fueled elbow against his neck, stunning him before smashing a fist into his stomach.

Yang then grabbed ahold of his mask and slammed his face against the counter, allowing Dinah to finish him off by lifting him up by his leg and shirt and firing off her weapons as she threw him, sending him flying down to the floor below.

Looking behind them, Dinah and Yang could spot two girls stepping onto the dance floor, but despite their petite and glamorous appearance, they knew better than to underestimate Junior's personal bodyguards.

"Melanie, is that who I think it is?" The girl dressed in red asked her twin, her gloved forearms covered by sharp and threatening claws.

Melanie, dressed in white shot a glare towards the elder blonde, her eyes flaring with recognition. "That's her, alright. The Black Canary. Don't know about the other girl, though."

"Think we can take them?" Militia asked, raising her claws and assuming a stance.

"Whatever, we got this." Melanie scoffed as she prepared to fight.

Meanwhile, Dinah took notice of Yang's weapons as she reloaded her own. "See what I told you about wasting ammo? Need any of mine, firecracker?"

Hearing this, Yang smirked as she cocked her gauntlets, the empty cartridges falling to the ground as she tossed two belts of red shells into the air, locking them into the clips on her weapons, impressing Dinah.

"I always carry extras! I learned from the best, remember?" Yang smirked, leading Dinah to smile proudly in return.

"Heh, you got me. Try to keep up, though."

Leaping into the air, both blondes unloaded their weapons onto the twins, explosive flares rocketing down to the floor, blowing apart anything in their path as the twins flipped and dodged to evade the blasts.

Landing on their feet, Yang and Dinah faced their opponents, and received icy glares in return. The twins immediately moved towards Yang, moving in sync and trying to wear her down with a combination of strikes and kicks.

Militia moved in with a slice of her claws, leading Yang to raise an arm to deflect, only for Melanie to rush in with a razor-sharp heel to her chest, nailing her and causing her to stagger back. Melanie then ducked, allowing Militia to vault over her and swing down with her claws.

However, Melanie then moved to intercept an airborne dropkick from Dinah as an ammo-fueled kick blasted into the floor below her, missing Melanie by a hair's length. Readying her weapons, she faced Militia and advanced.

Militia realized she would have to fight Yang alone, but hardened her expression and raised her claws. On the other hand, Yang noticed this quicker than her and swiftly forced Militia on the defensive, hammering a volley of punches into the girl and leaving her to frantically block every hit. However, Yang was too strong as a flaming uppercut shattered her defense and before she could recover, Yang slammed a shotgun blast into her, throwing her into one of the pillars surrounding the dance floor and knocking her out.

Melanie saw her sister's defeat, but could not afford to let her guard down as Dinah parried each of her swift kicks and blows. A heel was met with her shin and countered with a bullet-filled kick to the face, and a low kick was met a sidestep and a bullet to the torso.

Growling at the blonde, Melanie moved in once again, but Dinah's reflexes were too much as each of her attacks was ineffective and she hardly appeared to be wearing out.

Dinah's smug grin grew as Melanie grew more frustrated, and in her exhaustion, she became more predictable. As Melanie moved in for a low sweep, Dinah jumped with a backward flip, hitting Melanie in the chin and sending her into the air.

Jumping up, Dinah rose with a knee to her stomach, knocking the air out of the girl before finishing her off with a powerful kick across the side of her head, sending her spiralling to the floor in a heap.

Both blondes stopped to breathe, before the sound of footsteps alerted them to the bar. Walking towards them armed with a rocket launcher was Junior bearing a furious expression on his face.

"Mark my words, you _will_ pay for this." Junior growled, his gloved finger tickling the trigger of his weapon.

"Speaking of pay, did you try to get yourself a drink here?" Dinah asked suspiciously to Yang as she rolled her shoulder and stretched to loosen herself out.

"I-It's non-alcoholic, honest!" Yang hastily replied with a bead of sweat rolling down her head, but Dinah could already see that she was lying.

Junior felt his eye twitch for being toyed with again and fired a flurry of missiles at Yang and Dinah, causing both of them to flip backward and dodge, the rockets peppering the dance floor in explosions.

Aiming again, Junior fired, only for Yang and Dinah to raise their weapons and shoot down every rocket out of the air, each missile exploding in mid-air.

Frustrated, Junior transformed his launcher into a baseball bat-like weapon, jumping in and knocking Yang to the side by hitting her in the gut, the weapon's size breaking past her defense. Turning to the other blonde, Junior raised his weapon and swung. Dinah blocked two strikes and delivered a fire Dust-powered kick, but the man blocked it with his bat and used it to sweep the woman off her feet and swung with considerable strength, knocking her away.

However, Yang had risen to her feet, her hair alight with a luminescent gold as a confident smirk decorated her face. Slamming her fists together, her hair burst into flames as she blasted towards Junior, dodging his rockets with lightning speed.

Breaking into a nervous sweat, Junior used his melee weapon and swung at Yang, but she was too fast and too strong for him, as she instantly landed a bone-shattering punch against his face, and again, and again, and again as her punches only grew faster and stronger, until her eyes bled from their usual bright lilac into a deadly red.

Slugging Junior across the jaw with an explosive blow, Yang sent the larger man flying across the room as his weapon smashed in two. Meanwhile, Dinah had just risen to her feet as she noticed Junior do the same…

...only for her face to wince with dread as she saw several strands of Yang's golden hair clenched in Junior's fist. Big mistake.

Feeling an overwhelming wave of killing intent that sent chills throughout her whole body, Dinah looked behind her to see Yang staring at her hair in his hands, wearing a glare filled with pure, unadulterated rage. No, not just that. This was the face of a killer, of a savage beast who wished nothing but death to befall their unlucky target. Almost like… _him._

Screaming bloody murder, Yang's aura exploded, bathing the dance floor in a burst of flames as she sprinted into a mad dash for Junior, trailing golden fire behind her as she ran.

Moving quickly, Dinah ran to reach Junior in time as Yang drew a fist back, covered in blazing fire. Using her leg guards, Dinah ran as fast as she could, boosting herself as she drew in a deep breath.

Both blondes were in front of Junior in an instant, and before he had time to react, it was already too late. Black Canary then opened her mouth and unleashed her Semblance. A supersonic scream escaped her throat, blasting Junior with incredible force, so that he barely had time to feel Yang's fist smashing into his face.

The two devastating attacks shook the entire building and shattered all the windows, accompanied by not one but two ear-shattering cracks, completely incapacitating the unfortunate man at the mercy of two women scorned.

Breathing raggedly, Yang's hair lost its flaming aura and her eyes returned to their original color as she calmed herself down and returned to normal. She then looked to Dinah and laughed nervously, scratching the back of her head. "Um, so… please don't tell anyone about this? Heheh…"

Dinah let out a tired sigh, but smiled despite herself. "Fine, but just this once, firecracker. By the way, you're heading to Beacon soon, right? You ready?"

"Of course! And I made sure that Ruby stays safe while I'm gone." Yang slapped her teacher's back playfully while the two exited the building completely destroyed in their wake. When they did, they saw a familiar red-cloaked young girl standing on the side of the road.

"Yang? What are you do-" Ruby gasped when she saw the person next to Yang, she let out a huge squeal of joy then rushed to Dinah with a tight hug.

"Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh! Mrs. Lance! You're here!" Ruby cried with stars in her eyes. Dinah was also Ruby's favorite teacher second to her uncle Qrow.

"Hello, Ruby." Dinah smiled softly and lightly ruffled Ruby's hair, causing her to giggle uncontrollably. She always saw Ruby and Yang to an extent as daughters that she hadn't had, not that she blamed Ollie.

Ruby let go of her and asked, "Sooo… what are you two doing here?"

Yang just sighed. "…it's a long story."

"Well, it's been nice but I need to go home. I think I've had my share of bar fights tonight." Dinah sighed.

"Give me a call next time you do! You know I'd be there in a heartbeat, right?" Yang laughed to Dinah, who snickered in return.

"That's exactly why I never call you, firecracker!" Dinah laughed as she playfully flicked Yang on the forehead, causing her to pout lightly and Ruby to giggle.

Well, it's getting late. Stay safe on the way back, kiddos." Dinah bid farewell to Yang and Ruby, and the two sisters waved her goodbye as well as Ruby sat behind Yang on her bike. Revving the engine, the two sisters drove off into the night.

When Dinah was walking towards her ride, her scroll rang. She took the device out of her pocket and opened it, wondering who was calling her this late…

"Barry?" Dinah questioned herself before answering the call. "Yes, Barry? What is it?"

"Sorry for calling you this late, Dinah. But just hear me out. I saw Torchwick two hours ago. I managed to catch him, but somehow he escaped without me noticing for just a few seconds." Barry informed her.

"You weren't fast enough to catch it? You?" Dinah deadpanned with a grin.

"Dinah…" Barry sighed with embarrassment in his voice, causing Dinah to laugh, before regaining her composure.

"Could it be one of the Rogues that helped him?" Dinah suggested.

"It's possible." Barry hypothesized.

"Hmm… Okay, I'm on my way to meet you. You're still in your office, right?"

"Yeah. I'll let security know you're on the way. Oh, can you tell Ollie too? I'll try to contact Hal as well."

Dinah smirked at the mention of her husband. "Say no more, Barry."

She hung up and hopped on her black and yellow motorcycle. She took a glance upon the shattered moon before driving away into the night.

* * *

**R W B Y**

**B H O D**

* * *

**Authors' Notes:**

**SW: Well, here I am, back again writing another story. This time is a collaboration between me and VivaL'Aquila, who you guys may or may not know, write the most well-known RWBY/Assassin's Creed crossover on this site, A Creed Reborn. I'm a huge fan of Viva's work, and I often check his profile to see what ideas that he came up with for a potential new story. Then there was an idea that he had deleted a long time ago, which is a DC/RWBY crossover that focused on the Robins as a team together. As a fan of both franchises, I PM'ed him if he wanted to create this crossover, but with my own ideas added into the mix, so it's kinda like a spiritual adaptation to his idea.**

**Viva: Hey, guys. Viva here. Hope you enjoy this little story we put together. SW PM'd me and pitched me in on this idea, we started discussing what their powers and backstories would be, and one thing led to another, and I had a lot of fun, let me tell you that. But being the lazy slacker I am, this took a while to take off for real (which is also why my stories hardly get updated these days ***_**hysterical laughter**_***). I'll keep working on my own stories, including A Creed Reborn, but I'll be working on this too. The story will be posted on SW1107's account, so follow to get notified.**

**SW: A little bit of info about Team BHOD. The team name BHOD (pronounced "Bondi") is derived from the color bondi blue, which is a variation of blue-green that is closer to a medium darker shade of cyan (Google it.). It took me FOREVER to think about this name that just so happens to match with my personal favorite DC characters. ****For the outfit designs for the first three volumes, the boys' are from the Injustice: Gods Among Us video game while Dinah's from DC Rebirth. The**** thing that I find amusing is we finished all four prologues on the day the first issue of the RWBY comic is published digitally by DC Comics XD. So yeah, we'll try to update this story as soon as we can, but expect irregular update schedules. I guess that's all we can say for now. We'll see you guys next time! **


	5. Initial Suspects

**Several months later, Residential District, Vale**

_*Beep beep*_

"Nrggh…"

Barry groaned when he started to open his eyes, slowly tilting his head to the side, barely setting his eyes at his scroll with the alarm blaring through its speakers. He stretched his arm to grab the scroll and turned the alarm off, rising up from his bed. Looking through his work files, apparently there was a case that suddenly showed up this Friday afternoon, and he was called to investigate. But judging from an angry message that he got...

"_I'm late again huh? Why do I have to work today? Especially when the Vytal Festival is coming up soon…" _

He took a quick shower (making sure he didn't see any rats this time), brushing his teeth while combing his hair to its usual quiff, all this in a span of just _5 minutes_. When you have enhanced super speed as your Semblance, why not use it to perform mundane tasks?

Dressed in his detective uniform, Barry grabbed his lab coat and headed towards his apartment door, but stopped when he reached for the handle. He turned back and walked towards the kitchen to grab and quickly make himself a toast, then opened the fridge and plucked a leaf from a cabbage. Walking towards a fish bowl placed on a coffee table, inside it was a small brown turtle.

"I have to go, girl. Sorry that you have to eat this for the rest of the afternoon."

He put the leaf inside the bowl, Mcsnurtle the Turtle started to nibble on it slowly. Smiling at his pet for a brief moment, then he finally turned and headed to the door.

* * *

**Downtown Vale**

"So Allen, what do you think?"

Barry ducked under the police tape which blocked the way to a Dust shop that its window display glass and door had been shattered and torn apart respectively, the window was also covered in police tape. He took a brief look inside the shop, it appears that several Dust crystals were taken from their shelves, while the cylindrical tubes containing powder Dust were drained almost bone dry.

"Well, it's a robbery alright." Barry said, lightly rubbing one of the tear lines on his cheeks.

"Duh. Just like the last couple dozen lately. Who do you think did this?" One of the two detectives asked him rather annoyed for Barry pointing out something that obvious. It's always like this when Barry was requested to investigate a case, with him always late to the crime scene.

"I have a few guesses, it could be the-"

"Mr. Allen? Is that you? I never thought I'd see you again!"

The faunus detective turned his head to see four girls walking towards the crime scene, although he slightly widened his eyes when he caught his attention to a certain girl dressed in black and red, the youngest among the group.

"Oh, hey there. You're that girl I met that night, aren't you?" Barry asked at the girl, smiling kindly. He knew a face when he saw one, and he instantly recognized the girl he met during Torchwick's robbery a couple of months ago.

"Y-Yeah! I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself back then." Ruby giggled while scratching behind her head feeling slightly embarrassed.

"My name is Ruby Rose. These are my friends and teammates, Weiss, Blake, and my sister Yang. Guys, this is Mr. Barry Allen, the detective I told you all about a couple weeks ago." She continued, gesturing to each of the girls beside her. The three girls had their own versions of greeting, ranging from a simple "Sup." from the tallest blonde girl Yang, a single wave from the dark-haired Blake and a short bow from the white-haired petite heiress Weiss.

Barry nodded in greeting. "It's nice to meet you all." Although he could've sworn that Weiss was staring at him rather oddly, focusing her sight at his face. Blake was also staring at him but with a rather curious look in her amber eyes.

"So what happened here?" Ruby asked.

Before Barry could opened his mouth, one of the two detectives working alongside him answered Ruby, "A robbery. It's the second one this week. This place is turning into a jungle."

"Ugh. That's terrible." Yang sighed sadly.

"Who do you think are the suspects?" Blake asked.

"I'm not really sure who exactly, but maybe either Torchwick, or a criminal gang called the Rogues that's been popping out recently here in Vale." Barry said.

"Yeah, word is those 'honourable thieves' or whoever they are just came from Atlas." The bearded detective piped up.

A younger detective walked up to his partner to gave his two cents in, "Or possibly that guy that carries those 'Venom' drugs, but then again, to be able to pull a heist with your head all screwed up like that… Speaking of which, they left all the money again."

The bearded detective replied to him, "Yeah, it doesn't make any sense. Who needs that much Dust? What are they tryin' to do? Build a freakin' army? Thinkin' uh… the White Fang maybe?"

"Yeah, I'm thinking we don't get paid enough." The younger detective joked while the two walked inside the store, leaving Barry with the girls.

Barry inwardly sighed. This was not the first time that he was left alone to his own devices, and he can already figure out one of the reasons why.

"Hmph. The White Fang. What an awful bunch of degenerates!" Weiss scoffed while crossing her arms in a haughty manner.

Blake turned to the heiress with a serious expression and retorted, "What's _your_ problem?"

"_My_ problem? I simply don't care for the criminally insane." Weiss said flippantly.

"The White Fang is hardly a bunch of psychopaths. They're a collection of misguided faunus." Blake said, crossing her arms as well with notable agitation.

"Misguided?! They want to wipe humanity off the face of the planet!" Weiss yelled.

Blake yelled back, but with a bit of strain in her voice. "So then they're _very _misguided. Either way, it still doesn't make any sense of why would they steal a Dust shop in the middle of downtown Vale."

"You got a point there." Barry interrupted, "Besides, Ruby and I failed to capture Torchwick completely a few months ago. It could be him. Well, either him or the Rogues."

Weiss just stubbornly held to her own opinion. "I don't particularly care for some B-listed criminals. It still doesn't change the fact that the White Fang are a bunch of scum. Those Faunus only know how to lie, cheat and steal."

Almost immediately, Barry furrowed his eyebrows and glared at her. He didn't know why, but there was some kind of anger starting to well up inside of the detective's heart when he heard those words from the heiress. A part of him wanted to snap back at her, but a part of him wanted to remind that he promised himself to always forget and forgive.

"C'mon Weiss, that's not entirely true." Yang scolded, causing Weiss's icy glare to shift to the blonde, before she turned her nose with a scoff.

"By the way Mr. Allen, if you don't mind me asking. What happened to you that night? After you gave me your card you just disappeared! It was so weird!" Ruby exclaimed.

Barry winced, but not noticeable to her. He struggled to find a suitable answer, but luckily a yell far in front of him saved him from the trouble of explaining to her.

"Hey! Stop that faunus!"

The girls' attention were directed to the docks just right behind them, they immediately rushed to the location, where they saw a young man running along a ship, two sailors were chasing after him, trying to apprehend him. Judging from the monkey tail, he was definitely a faunus.

"Thanks for the ride, guys! Haha!" The faunus boy laughed, then he leaped onto the docks running, then jumped to a nearby lamp post, hanging upside down using his tail.

"You no-good stowaway!" One of the sailors yelled.

"Hey! A no-good stowaway would've been caught! I'm a great stowaway!" He exclaimed while he pulled a banana and peeled it. Before he even started to eat it, a stone was thrown at his direction, but he dodged it easily.

The two detectives that was with Barry earlier arrived at the scene to see what was the commotion about.

"Hey! Get down from there this instant!" The bearded detective yelled at the boy, only to find a banana peel landed on his face, growling in annoyance.

Chuckling mischievously, the boy jumped to the ground continuing to run away from the detectives, passing team RWBY that was on the side near the docks, although for a split second he gave a quick wink at Blake, her eyes widened at this action as the boy keeps sprinting through, further and further away from the girls.

"Well, Weiss. You wanted to see the competition. And there it goes." Yang joked.

"Quick! We need to observe him!" Weiss, not really paying attention to Yang, declared as she started to follow in pursuit of the faunus, the rest of the team running behind her.

The faunus boy was running towards Barry's direction then turned around a corner of a building. Feeling that his co-workers will not be able to catch him (no offense), Barry rushed to the opposite side of the building, using his natural cat-like faunus agility to quickly climbed the building to the rooftop in hopes of getting a better chance to catch the boy.

And his prediction was right, as he saw the monkey faunus jumped to the rooftop of the same building, escaping the clutches of the detectives and team RWBY underneath. Narrowing his eyes for a split second, Barry activated his Semblance, and in a burst of speed with yellow lightning streaks crackling behind him, he tackled and pinned the boy on the rooftop grounds.

"Ow! What the heck, dude?!" The boy shouted while struggling against the tight grip of the detective.

"Well, a _great_ stowaway like you must have a reason to sneak on a boat to here. How about you tell your story back in the station?" Barry smirked. The other blond faunus only groaned defeatedly.

* * *

**Residential District, Vale, Nighttime**

"_That went surprisingly smooth."_

Sun Wukong, the faunus boy he apprehended that afternoon was a student huntsman from Mistral although he had moved from Vacuo a long time ago. He wanted to go to Vale early to see the sights before his own team arrived, but it was still no excuse to hitch up a ride without any permission from the boat's crew members. Fortunately for him, he was released pretty much without any major problems and only with a warning.

But there was one thing that Sun have asked Barry during the interrogation that slightly bothered him...

"_Sooo… that black-haired chick back then? She's a faunus. I can tell you're the same, sir. I'm just saying." Sun said nonchalantly, his hands were behind his back as he leaned on his chair._

"_Really? Honestly, not many people can recognize this as a trait, they're pretty subtle." Barry said, hovering his fingers to his tear lines and softly tracing them before placing his hands on the table, his face returning to a stern manner. "But enough of that. With a bunch of robberies here there's a lot of suspects out there. Now I hate to ask you this, but you're not one of those guys in the White Fang are you?"_

_Sun suddenly jerked back to a straight position while his eyes bulging out. "W-What?! No! No! I swear I'm not with those freaks! Those creepy jerks only know to use force to get what they want. There's no way I'm working with them!"_

_Barry relaxed his posture before turning towards the door. "Then I guess you're free to go, but I expect for you to don't do this again."_

_Sun nodded, then uncharacteristically from his boisterous nature, he quietly asked, "Um, sir. You don't think that... she's with them, right?"_

Sitting behind his work desk in his apartment room reviewing previous cases of robberies of Dust stores from last week, Barry pondered on what Sun had asked. If Blake's a White Fang member, meaning that either she was a criminal hiding in plain sight masquerading as a student or a former member defected from the group.

Before he could think about any possibilities regarding Blake, his scroll rang beside him, and by the looks of it, he knew he must answer this.

"What is it, Ollie?" Barry asked.

"Some good stuff, fearless leader. I just got intel on White Fang activity. Rumor has it they're planning to strike on a huge Schnee freighter tomorrow night." Ollie said in that laid-back manner of his before going to a more serious tone.

"I'm guessing they were hired by somebody who really needs that huge supply of Dust. It can't be Junior, Dinah already covered that months ago. So it may be either Torchwick or the Rogues, and after some thinking I'm leaning towards those two as the main culprits." Barry said, rapidly switching the display of the screen to another bunch of files after putting the call on speaker mode.

"Don't forget Bane. You know big guys like him must have some sort of benefit from this." Ollie reminded him.

"Yeah, but for what reason?" Barry lightly rubbed his chin.

Ollie paused for a moment, Barry couldn't see it, but he had a feeling the archer was smirking at the other side of the line. He had a bad feeling about this. Now that he thought about it, why did it feel like his teammate's voice sounded pretty… close?

"_Oh, don't tell me…" _ He slowly got up and walked towards the kitchen, and he saw what he didn't want to see and facepalmed at the sight in front of him.

"Ollie… What are you doing here? And what are you doing to her?!"

Ollie was right there in the kitchen in his civilian clothes, stuffing Mcsnurtle's fish bowl with leaves of cabbage. Lots of them. He turned his head towards Barry, an innocent look plastered on his face.

"Feeding your ironic pet, what else? It looks like she hasn't eaten for days." Ollie grinned.

"Well if you must know, I've been working all day and you pretty much have no idea how to take care of a turtle!" Barry vented.

"You're late to work and back then in Beacon when we three had to wake you up for classes all the time, so what's the difference?" Ollie retorted back.

* * *

_**Flashback, eight years ago, Beacon Academy dorms**_

_The birds are chirping outside the windows of the dorms of the prestigious Beacon Academy. Inside one of the dorm rooms, a young Barry Allen was sleeping soundly on his bed. Then suddenly…_

"_WEE WOO WEE WOO WEE WOO!"_

"_AAaargghh!" Barry jerked up in shock by the sudden loud noise near his eardrums, accidentally rolling off the bed onto the cold floor._

"_Oww…" He whined, rubbing his head in slight pain._

_He looked up in annoyance to see the rest of his teammates, already dressed up in the academy's school uniforms and with matching smirks on their faces._

"_What's the tally count for this week?" Dinah asked._

_Ollie pulled out a small notebook and pencil and drew a horizontal line over four vertical lines. There were already a lot of tally marks that it almost filled up a page._

"_It's the 20th set, you're on a roll, man. Only around ten more, then you got the whole month checked in." Ollie teased the team leader as he put the notebook away._

"_Okay then, Dinah. You're on duty tomorrow." Hal grinned as he dissipated a loudspeaker construct generated from his ring._

_Dinah nodded as she smiled sweetly at Barry, almost sickeningly even. Barry could only groaned as he hung his head and facepalmed._

* * *

"And besides, I can take care of a turtle just as much as my own bow, thank you very little."

"Just… Answer my first question." The speedster pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation.

Ollie chuckled at his leader's antics. Looks like banter between the two of them still haven't changed all these years. "Okay, okay. Fine. There's something I want to tell you." He placed his own scroll on the coffee table, showing some folders labeled each and every known criminals in Vale so far.

"Remember when I told you that Bane will show up here eventually? So I heard somewhere that he supplied Venom not only to his own goons, but to Torchwick's as well as the White Fang. Do you think he's done the same with the Rogues?"

Barry shook his head, regaining his composure. "Highly unlikely. The Rogues may be criminals, but they don't take drugs during their heists, would mess up their heads if they do. Trust me, I faced them a couple of times, and they are _not_ to be underestimated when they worked together."

"I see. I was lucky enough to take down one of those Venom-infused thugs with the help from some black-haired ninja girl." Ollie said.

Barry's head perked up at the last part. "Wait, a black-haired ninja girl?"

"Oh, guess I didn't tell the full story. She helped me out taking down those thugs and I must say, I could tell she had guts when she restrained that Venom user. Quite a smart kid, willing to go out stopping faunus harassment at night."

"I met a couple of girls this afternoon. Must be a team studying at Beacon. Now among those girls was Blake, and she was pretty defensive about the White Fang." The detective pulled up a picture of Sun on his scroll and displayed it on the table. "Then I captured and interrogated a faunus boy, Sun Wukong, stowed himself on a boat illegally. He apparently claimed that this Blake is a faunus and he's possibly hinting that she's working or formerly worked with the White Fang."

Ollie pondered for a moment before saying, "Looks like we need to get answers from both of them, especially Blake."

* * *

**Café, Vale, Afternoon**

"Finally, she speaks!"

After encountering Blake for the second time when she revealed her faunus nature in the form of cat ears on her head, Sun asked her to come talk to him about this. And here they were, two days later, sitting on the balcony of a café in downtown Vale drinking tea.

"Nearly two days and you gave me nothing but small talk and weird looks!" Sun casually exclaimed, only to receive a glare and a scowl from the black-haired girl. He didn't mind it though.

"Yep, just like that." Sun remarked.

"Um, excuse me, may I interrupt you two?"

The two faunus looked to the side surprised when they saw the same detective they met a few days ago.

"O-oh… Mr. Allen. What are you doing here?" Blake asked, regaining most of her composure.

Setting a cup of tea of his own on the duo's table and grabbing an empty chair, Barry said to the two, "Well, it wouldn't be any trouble if I want to stay and chat with you two, would it? Besides, I'm on break today, so might as well relax for a while."

Blake and Sun looked at each other before nodding at him, allowing Barry to sit between the two. For a few minutes, there was an awkward silence, only the sound of sipped tea can be heard from the detective. During that time the two teenage faunus were staring at him. Noticing this, Barry just sighed and decided to break the silence.

"Now, there's something important that I need to ask the two of you, especially you Blake." The girl slightly flinched at this.

"W-What is it?" Blake asked the cheetah faunus.

Barry flicked his eyes away from her for a split second, making sure that the customers around them are not paying attention to them, before asking the question. "I'm gonna be blunt here, but are you familiar with the White Fang?"

Sun choked on his tea when he heard this. "Wait a minute, you are a member of the White Fang?!"

Blake's fingers twitched while she was holding her teacup, and Barry could've sworn that the bow on Blake's head fidgeted ever so slightly.

"J-Just answer him. I'm sure he'll understand whatever you say." Sun said in an effort to calm her down.

Twitching her lips to a very small smile at Sun, Blake closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Taking a sip of her tea and opened her eyes, and finally answered. "Yes… I'm... used to be a member."

Barry nodded slowly in understanding while Sun tried to wipe off the tea stains on his chest and shirt in disgust.

"I was a member for most of my life, actually. You could say I was born into it." Blake began to tell her story.

"Back then, things were different. After the war, the White Fang was founded and meant to be a symbol of peace between the humans and the faunus. However, despite promised of equality faunus was still the subject of discrimination and hate. Humans still saw us as the lesser species. The White Fang decided to stand up against all that as the voice of our people. And I was there, in front of every rally, took part of every boycott. But still, I was a naive child. I thought we could make a difference."

"Then, five years later our leader stepped down, and a new leader took his place, with a new way of thinking and goal set in mind. And it was just what I fear of what this once peaceful organization will become. Suddenly, our peaceful protests became violent, organized attacks. We're setting fire to shops that refused to serve us, hijacking vehicles from companies that used faunus labor, and the worst part that it was working. Humans treated us like equals. But not out of respect. Out of fear."

Setting her cup on the table, Blake finished her story. "So, I left. I decided I wouldn't use my skills to aid in their violence, instead I dedicated my life to become a Huntress. And here I am, a criminal hiding in plain view, all with the help of a little, black, bow." She wiggled her cat ears hidden beneath the bow.

Barry listened to every single word, pondering as she was telling her story. And with a sip of his tea, he decided to speak. "Well, I think I heard enough. And can I just say that you did the right thing to do."

Blake widened her eyes as she darted her attention to him. "You… You really think so? After everything I've done... You're not going to arrest me?"

"Why would I? You decided yourself that you're not with them anymore, right? You want to stand up to those that are helpless. Inequality and corruption must be stopped and someone like you had the courage to do it when no one else did. It's a noble thing to do as Huntsmen and Huntresses, right?" Barry said, smiling at her.

Feeling a bit touched by those words, Blake couldn't help but smile back. "...Yeah. I guess so. Thanks."

After listening to the two, Sun asked, "Have you told any of your friends about this?"

Blake's lips turned into a frown and she only lowered her head in shame.

Barry stood up from his chair and said, "It's okay if you don't want to talk about it right now. Why don't we go out? We can talk along the way and I think you guys can help me with the case I'm working on. What do you think?"

The two teenage faunus thought for a moment, and then nodded and stood up as well. "Sure, I'm in. As long as you don't arrest me again, sir." Sun joked.

Barry could only chuckled at the boy. "No promises there."

* * *

**Authors' Notes:**

**SW: And there you go, the first chapter in this story! I decided that the "prologue" of team BHOD will be concluded in the final two chapters in Volume 1, so the proper plot begins in Volume 2. Stay tuned for the second part of this final "prologue"!**

**Viva: Yep, we're just getting started, and I hope you all can help us see it through to the end. We'll have the ending for Volume 1 done next, so hold on because hey, we still haven't gotten the team together yet! Until next time, guys.**


End file.
